


Into the Depths of Infinity

by TheEndofEternity



Series: Eternity-Verse [1]
Category: Foundation - Isaac Asimov, Robot Series - Isaac Asimov
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Foundation Spoilers, GAY GAY GAY, Gay, Gay Marriage, M/M, Marriage, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEndofEternity/pseuds/TheEndofEternity
Summary: In an alternate universe where Elijah Baley is mysteriously brought back from the dead, he still can't find it in him to let his investigative spirit die. Aiding in the long term mission of his partner in investigation and now life, Elijah encounters some old demons.Inspired by a drawing done by tumblr user Justabitscrewy, which you can see here http://justabitscrewy.tumblr.com/post/161511137826/this-is-what-happens-when-i-let-doodles-get





	Into the Depths of Infinity

They had taken to going on as many adventures together as possible– while Elijah’s time on Baleyworld working on the colonization project had conditioned him to deal with much more volatile environments, there were certain corners of the galaxy that had yet to be explored.

Fortunately, he now had his partner by his side every step of the way. Both donned a spacesuit, which they used to maintain a connection to their ship with regardless of how far they went out, but Daneel had no need for a helmet in this toxic environment.

They climbed down a large, jagged rock slowly, Daneel standing closely behind in case Elijah slipped. This planet, called Ortheses, had a gravity 130% of that on human-inhabited planets or maintained on most space.

Which meant that if one were to fall on this irregular rocky environment, they’d fall hard.

Daneel spoke from behind, “It seems to me that we’re approaching another cluster of plateaus. Perhaps we’ll find a water source within the valley.”

Elijah grunted. The valley looked a mile away. But they had come here with a mission– per Daneel’s plan of galactic expansion, groups of his field agents will travel to uninhabited planets within the galaxy and test the soil, atmosphere, and any present liquids for two things– primitive lifeforms and the capability for terraforming. Any presently existing species would be studied so that it could be integrated into a society with non-native species and human beings, and a designated team specialized in terraforming would come to the planet and conduct the procedure, which would sometimes last over a hundred years.

However, occasionally Daneel, along with Elijah, will conduct the initial investigation of the planets themselves. Ever since Elijah’s unlikely return, much of their time spent together ended up wrapped in some sort of investigation or adventure, uneventful or not. It was one of the things that made them such a good team from the start, and something that would not go away any time soon.  
\----------------

Earlier, on their personal ship, they had just finished a 13 day voyage to this particular corner of the galaxy. The cluster of planets around this particular star, coined Selenius 5, was half-inhabited and terraformed and half-untouched, since this area of the galaxy had only been recently explored (recently meaning 300 years, in this case) and the easiest planets to manage were terraformed first, although neither Daneel nor Elijah were involved in this process. 

Previous missions to the star system were considered earlier, but it was important to deal with one major issue before introducing humans to the planets—the asteroid belt. Fortunately, between the first sighting of this solar system and the first colonization, a group of humaniform engineers had achieved a functional method of capturing stray asteroids from an asteroid belt of any size, as long as the average asteroid in the belt had a diameter less than 400 km. Although many of these systems had already been employed throughout the galaxy (in secrecy, no less), this particular system worked remotely and stealthily with a constant presence within the solar system, giving access to those mined materials for use in the terraforming project. 

It was this reason that Daneel had taken interest in visiting one of the planets in the system himself. While many of his agents only reported to him occasionally, he had worked closely with those involved with the asteroid mining project, since they assisted him in building habitations on the surface of the moon. Some of them were even built by Daneel himself, being some of the older members of this particular team. 

Elijah, on the other hand, saw these seemingly-parlous planets as a challenge. After spearheading the movement of Earthpeople throughout the galaxy in the first colonization of the galaxy since the Spacers (which took place over six thousand years ago), the fire inside of him to constantly surpass his previous expectations for himself had never died, even as he did. His unlikely resurrection, of course, all the more giving him a reason to strive even further to explore the darkest depths of the galaxy, just so that he could say he could after years of living within the steel catacombs of the Cities, once burdened with an agoraphobia that struck him just through a small glimpse of natural sunlight. 

Daneel looked at a readout on the control panel with scrutiny. “The planet we are approaching has a very thin atmosphere, while its gravitational pull is significantly stronger than what we’re used to experiencing. Are you sure you believe it’s worth it to examine it more closely?”

Elijah stepped behind Daneel, putting his hand on his shoulder as he leaned over to examine the display. “There have been worse environments where they’ve now built apartment structures. With a reasonable amount of time, this planet could house billions of people.”

Daneel swiveled around in his chair to face his husband of the past 280 years, being careful not to sever the connection he held to the ship he assisted in piloting.

“This wouldn’t be the first time that you insisted upon doing something so precarious,” Daneel paused, a small smile flitting across his face, “and succeeded in meeting your goals, nonetheless.” 

Elijah smiled down at him endearingly. “I’m not crazy enough to just go running into whatever trench or canyon I find, of course. We should probably find out what kind of air we’re getting into. Meanwhile, I’ll suit up and prepare for the worst.”

Giving his husband one last kiss on the head, he walked back into a corridor in the ship to find his surface exploration gear. Daneel had already been wearing his—a thin, nimble suit with minimal protections and insulations. While both required some form of temperature regulation, Daneel maintained much of his temperature with his own internal thermoregulators, which gave his choice of suit a lot more space for other, less bulky equipment. There was also no need for an atmospheric converter, since Daneel had no need to breathe the usual human composition of air (although since some form of atmosphere would be required for his voice to carry, there was a small device on his shoulder that he could pull up to his mouth to communicate in any environment just over total vacuum. In the case of exploration with other humaniforms, they could relay to each other mentally, but since Elijah did not possess these capabilities, such an extension was necessary. 

Once they landed on the surface, Daneel disconnected from the control panel and walked over to the release hatch. Elijah clicked on his helmet, followed by Daneel making sure it was secure. They walked onto the surface hand in hand.  
\------------- 

Daneel held up a thin sheet of illuminated glass, his other hand on Elijah’s back, stabilizing both of them on the rough terrain. He held it up to the landscape in front of them. The glass shimmered, then a streak of brightness shot across the canyon.

A few seconds later, the glass held a picture of their surroundings, with the addition of a head signature map as an overlay.

Elijah pointed to a particularly luminous portion of the glass. "This area looks like it might be a hot spring. There’s water after all.”

Daneel nodded, folding up the glass display. “It’s possible. But there is no way of knowing if the substance is, in fact, water, rather than some heavy liquid metal, unless we see it for ourselves.”

“And you know what that means,” Elijah said, looking down at the vast, jagged landscape before him. Daneel moved closer, practically touching his entire body to Elijah’s back, as they advanced down into the canyon. 

During their descent, Elijah shifted the topic to light conversation. “I don’t suppose the planet could be used a giant adventurer’s playground.”

Daneel was carefully concentrated on keeping them both steady as they made their way down the rock formation. “I don’t see why not.”

“It could be made a lot safer first, of course. Not much we can do about the gravity situation. Maybe that can be part of the adventure.”

“If there’s anything I have learned about human nature in the past six thousand years,” Daneel paused, steadily pushing a large rock out of the way with his foot, “it’s that there is an astounding number of humans throughout the galaxy who are much like yourself,” he paused and turned to smirk at Elijah, “always getting into trouble.”

Elijah looked at him with his mouth slightly agape. “I can’t tell if that’s meant to be an insult or not.”

They continued on. “I suppose it is open to any number of interpretations. However, despite my vigilance, I confess that I think it can be,” he paused, then looked into Elijah’s eyes, “a thing of beauty.”

Elijah hoped that the visor of his helmet hid his blushing. “You’re one to talk.” 

They were just a quarter of a mile away from their target when they came upon what could only be described as “the void”. 

Elijah, walking slightly ahead of Daneel (who had learned in their time together that Elijah didn’t want to be constantly coddled), had abruptly slowed his steps. 

Daneel strode forward, gently grasping Elijah’s shoulders. Through his transparent helmet, Daneel could see sweat beginning to drip down Elijah’s brow, something his thermoregulators would prevent from happening from heat alone. 

Elijah finally spoke, unable to avert his eyes away from what he saw before him. “D-Daneel… what is that?”

Daneel moved his head forward slightly to get a glimpse of what lie below them. Just a few strides in front of them was a reasonably-sized crack in the ground, certainly large enough to swallow an entire body. And looking into the crack, nothing could be seen but pure blackness. 

Daneel rested a stabilizing hand on Elijah’s leg as he bent down and shined a light into the crevasse. He then grabbed a small rock from the ground near his feet and dropped it. They waited over a minute without hearing a single thump that would usually accompany a drop to the bottom. 

Elijah slowly lowered to the ground. All at once he had realized the approaching nightfall on the planet, and the stars that engulfed the untampered sky. And, as evidenced by the cold hard ground, apparently ripped by some form of seismic activity, even the ground beneath him betrayed him. He suddenly felt very small, and very vulnerable. The intense gravity of the planet only weighed him down even more, and he felt like he was sinking, and slowly falling into the darkness of the crevasse in front of him, as dark and as empty as the wide open universe. 

It took Daneel’s reassuring embrace around him to remind him that the one thing he would never feel again is alone. 

They remained on the ground, Daneel holding one hand under his head (or, rather, helmet) and stroking his hand with the other. He encouraged Elijah to look into his eyes, or anywhere but the sky or the ground. Elijah gazed lovingly into Daneel’s deep blue eyes and they reminded him that home was wherever he could see them. 

Elijah took a couple more deep, steadying breathes before finally speaking again. “I don’t know what came over me. I hadn’t felt that way in so long, I-“

Daneel cut him off by kissing the face of his helmet. “I told you this planet was precarious. Most people would be brought to their knees by much less on a planet like this. You’ve come this far.” 

Elijah smiled as he worked his way back on his feet stubbornly. “That’s true. But I don’t want to stop here, Daneel. I want to get what we came here for.”

Daneel stood up with him, a look of pride beaming from seemingly his entire being. “I think that can be managed. First, however, I think it would be wise to leave a remote seismic detector near the site of the eruption in the ground so that we can track any major seismic activity occurring on the planet. After all, I hardly suspect that most willing adventurers would welcome massive earthquakes in their excursion package.”

Elijah squeezed his hand. “You’d be surprised. Humans are wilder than you could imagine.”

Daneel looked at him curiously. “I think I can imagine.”

They found a safe, sturdy spot past the fissure in the ground and continued into the valley.  
—----

Back in the spaceship, Baley pulled off his helmet, sweat dripping from his brow where the visor sat. Daneel immediately went over and wrapped his arms around his still-suited body and bent in for a kiss.

Once they unlocked their embrace, Elijah gave a weary smile. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for that.”

Daneel ran his fingers through Elijah’s slightly dampened hair. Elijah leaned into the touch.

“Perhaps I should have never subjected you to such a planet.”

Elijah shook his head. “I subjected myself to it. I was the one who thought the planet showed promise. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.”

Daneel smiled wearily. “You never do.”

Elijah ran a hand down his waist. “And you love it.”

“Occasionally,” He leaned in for a small, tender kiss, “You were very brave down there.”

Before Elijah could lean in for another kiss, Daneel interjected.

“That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be more careful.”

Elijah shot his husband an exasperated look. “Daneel, if I played it safe every step of the way, we would have never seen further colonization of the galaxy in the first place.”  
Daneel slowly nodded, giving Elijah an endearing look. “I won’t soon forget that. But if you live too recklessly, you could get hurt, or caught in a situation that causes you a significant degree of discomfort. I don’t wish to see that happen, or at the very least, we could minimize these possible events.”

They had encountered a couple more anomalies within the surface that mimicked the initial crevasse they had seen, but Elijah had dealt with it much more calmly (although not without Daneel’s hand in his own). However, it appeared that Daneel’s seismic detectors would quickly fulfill their purpose, as only 15 minutes into exploring the valley they had experienced a moderately sized earthquake and decided that it would be best to head back to the ship before the aftershocks hit. 

Daneel had logged the events of the day, being sure to note that the planet would need significant more study before any terraforming could be successfully undergone and (somewhat jokingly) that it was unlikely to become an adventure center any time in the immediate future. Elijah, however, had taken their conclusions from their mission much worse—to him, it felt like a small defeat. 

“So much potential for a thriving solar system,” Elijah said with a despondent tone, “And we’re ousted by a damn earthquake. I suppose we won’t be moving colonies to Ortheses any time soon, or ever.”

Smiling gently, Daneel held up two vials filled with water. “I suppose we’ll find out.”

Elijah gasped. “When did you grab those? The surface water in the region when made it to was so sparse.”

Daneel carefully placed the vials into a holder built into the wall. He looked back at Elijah and cocked his head. “You were with me the entire time. Perhaps your attention was caught by something else?”

Elijah thought back to the events proceeding their descent and into the valley. Then he remembered. Daneel really did look impeccable in that suit. 

Daneel looked back at Elijah with a small smirk. 

Goddamn it, thought Elijah, I always forget that he knows how I’m feeling. 

With the blush creeping up from Elijah’s neck to his forehead, however, it would be impossible for anyone to miss how he felt.

**Author's Note:**

> gay


End file.
